2009digitalboy's Anime List | 2009digitalboy's Manga List

2009digitalboy's Profile

Have you ever wondered what early Berserk would be like if the Black Swordsman were actually black, the demons he fought were members of the KKK, and the whole thing was set in the American southwest of 1880? Well, Blaster Knuckle is the answer you your questions.

Blaster Knuckle is one of those novelty manga that no matter whether it’s any good or not, is going to get it’s own little cult fanbase just for being what it is. The plot is as follows - Victor Freeman is a former heavyweight boxer whose father was killed by the KKK when he was young. However, Victor knows the secret behind the KKK - it is headed by half-vampire half-warewolf demons that eat humans. Because black people are prejudiced against, they are easy to be hunted and killed and not missed, so the monsters mainly feed on them. Victor is out to destroy these monsters one at a time on his endless quest for vengeance.

Because the beasts he fights are immortal, he has to blow up their heads to kill them, which he does with his badass fucking shotgun glove loaded with silver shells. When he kills the demons, though, they become regular human corpses, so the world knows him as a murderer and there is a huge bounty on his head. Therefor, Victor walks a lone road, taking the pain of being hunted and the burden of vengeance onto himself. Of course, like Gatts, he’s way too badass to mind.

The manga is only 3 volumes long, so the plot is pretty basic, but it does enough in that time to have a decent variety, not outstay it’s welcome, and leave a great taste in your mouth. It’s mostly about Victor Freeman being insanely badass, blowing off peoples heads, and freeing his fellow black man. The depiction of 1880’s American life is actually pretty researched and accurate aside from the, like, demons. Some fun side characters are introduced, and the ending is significantly epic. Interestingly, a lot of the plot is actually withheld for the later parts so that you only really get the full picture in the end. So, while the plot isn’t particularly deep or complex, it’s more than good enough to stand up to the novelty value and make it worth reading all three volumes and keeping it memorable.

The artwork in Blaster Knuckle is about as good as it really needs to be. It takes the usual seinen route of more realistic characters and more grotesquely detailed monsters. Victor Freeman is a badass, but he looks EXACTLY like Gatts from Berserk, only black. Even the Blaster Knuckle could be called a sort of copy of Gatts’ arm canon. What’s really important, though, is that Wazarai Shizuya knows how to draw some badass fight scenes. The fights flow well and are a ton of fun, especially because of Victor’s boxing style that gives an extra level of cool to the fights, like you can tell he knows what he’s doing. And while Victor is absurdly powerful, he does get kicked around enough that the battles don’t feel totally one-sided. Towards the end, there get to be some especially great fights when Victor and one of his com padres are taking out hordes of enemies.

And of course, seeing as how we’re dealing with demons and shotguns, there is bound to be a decent amount of gore. Blaster Knuckle does have some shock value moments, though they are more or less justified by the plot. That said, there’s nothing more fun than showing off some of the crazier pages.

It’s a shame that this manga is almost totally unheard of and will likely never, ever make it to America, because I would love to own it. Even if the main draw is the novelty, I do think it’s more than fun and cool enough to re-read, which just makes it that much more awesome. It’s one of those manga you simply can’t help but love no matter how silly it is. Even though you can never find it in America, it is actually fully scanslated thanks to a group that formed just to release this manga, and is findable right on MangaFox (which is good because I’ve been too lazy to download the series for like 2 years now, lol.) It’s more than worth reading if you’re like me and always wanted to see more black people in manga, or if you just generally like absurd gore, badass dudes, and crazy action fun.

Final Score - 7.6 read more

If you asked me to name an anime I truly and utterly hated, my immediate response would probably be ‘Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha.’ I found the original series to be utterly horrible in every way, in spite of it being the work of my favorite director, Akiyuki Shinbo. I’d heard from a number of people that Nanoha A’s was much better and would justify the first season. To my surprise, it went above and beyond mere justification and was in fact one of the outright best anime I’ve seen in a long time. I’d go so far as to call it a masterpiece.

Sound

The OST for Nanoha A’s is composed by Hiroaki Sano (Other Seven Arcs productions, Honey and Clover, Nodame Cantabile) who I thought did an incredible job. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the OST. I managed to find a collection of ’sound stage’ CDs, which are kind of like drama CDs in that it is simply an audio of the actresses performing various selections. There are a handful of songs performed by the actresses across the CDs, but none of the in-show music. While I can’t give an in-depth review of the OST, I’ll say that what I heard in the show was very gripping. The music was dramatic and powerful, and the heroic tunes during transformation sequences and fight scenes were very empowering. No complaints in this area.

The opening theme, ETERNAL BLAZE by Nana Mizuki, was above average but didn’t really grab my attention. It’s a lot like every other opening song that’s done by the show’s seiyuu, but this one was at l east very well-written. The ending theme, Spiritual Garden, featured the other major seiyuu from the show, Yukari Tamura, and got a similar reaction from me. Simply put, not my choice of genre. All of the songs on the sound stage CDs were very similar to this and will surely be a big treat for fans of the seiyuu and J-pop. One song had particularly nice bass, which I enjoyed.

Voice acting is a pretty enormous deal in Nanoha, because almost every seiyuu in the show is a huge name and these are some of their most famous performances. Starting with Yukari Tamura (Kanami in Scryed, Ink in Moetan, Tenten in Naruto), I recall totally hating her performance in the first series, likening it to ‘icepicks being jammed in my ears.’ However, I had no problem with her this time. Perhaps it’s because of the cuteness being toned down or this show’s script, or because she’s gotten more used to the roll now, or it could just be my mistake the first time around.

Fate Testarossa is played by Nana Mizuki (Kirihara in Darker Than Black, Wrath in FullMetal Alchemist, Morinas in Simoun, Hinata in Naruto) who seems intent to appear in all of my reviews, lol. She plays a very shy girl for a lot of parts, but on the battlefield she gains a sternness and feeling of being in control. this duality is perfect for her character and adds more depth to her. Kana Ueda (Rin in Fate/Stay Night, Kinon in Gurren Lagann, Yumi in Marimite, Fumika in Shigofumi) plays Hayate and is adorable with some really great emotional moments towards the end of the series. the focus is on cuteness for sure with her, but she still rounds out her character very well.

My absolute favorite performance in the show was Vita played by Asami Sanada (Di Gi Charat, Tamaki in Kurenai, Kanako in Maria Holic, Matoi in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei). This performance had everything - a very real voice and personality for the character which was moving in it’s anger, touching in it’s happiness, and a ton of fun in comedy moments. I’d call this one of my favorite vocal performances ever, actually, it was just that good. She truly made Vita a sympathetic and memorable character whose strength of heart shined through. I also feel the need to mention Kaori Shimizu as Signum because she played Boogiepop read more

The general theme in Darker Than Black is that everyone is being used. Every single character is being egged along by the characters around them who wish to fulfill their own purposes. They control others as if it were a game - however, it’s when the players start to make themselves a piece in that game that things get interesting. It’s a game of ‘who’s controlling who?’ and an exploration of what it means to be making your own decisions versus letting someone else make them. Through this theme, there is explored the idea of identity, social acceptance, the importance of will-power, and more all wrapped up in a cop-drama/action thriller with fantasy elements. Decent at worst and excellent at best, Darker Than Black has a good amount to offer in terms of entertainment and a little bit to offer for thought if you look for it. Mostly it’s a show to chill out and enjoy when you want something on the darker but fun side.

Sound

Darker Than Black’s OST, ~Kuro no Keiyakusha~ Gekihen, is composed by none other than THE Yoko Kanno (Arjuna, Cowboy Bebop, Escaflowne, Ghost in the Shell SAC, Turn A Gundam, Wolf’s Rain) who is easily the most famous and acclaimed anime composer there is. The soundtrack is all very smooth jazz and lounge music ranging from higher-tempo excitement to very relaxing, chill songs. As usual for Kanno, there is boatloads of bass and lots of unique percussion instruments.

A couple of the songs have some electronica touch and there are numerous vocal tracks. Generally, the feel of the album is to be as cool as possible. Whether it’s chase music or something more laid-back, it’s always super-cool like the whole album is wearing sunglasses. My favorite track is one called ‘Blend In,’ which fuses some smooth-as-hell guitars with a suave voice and a great low-tempo beat (though interestingly I have no idea where this song was in the show.) As expected from Yoko Kanno, there are no complaints about the OST, and as usual the album is so unique from her other works that it’s impossible to compare them against each-other.

Both of the opening songs for this show are quite nice. The first is Howling by Abingdon Boys School which has been hugely popular ever since this show began 2 years ago. I’ve listened to this song a great many times since then myself, and hilariously since I’d originally stopped watching after 10 episodes I’d been totally unaware of the second op, Kakusei Heroism ~The Hero Without A Name~ by An Cafe, which is just as nice. Both have pretty good videos as well. I didn’t care at all for either ending theme. They were both very slow and boring and didn’t reflect any part of the show’s style whatsoever.

As far as voice acting goes, Darker Than Black employs about as many big names as any production of this high budget, but I didn’t really think there were many exemplary performances. The show doesn’t have a whole lot of emotional dialog, so there aren’t a terrible amount of chances to emote, and all of the minor characters sounded just average. Thankfully, most of the cast power is in the recurring characters. My favorite voice was easily Ikuya Sawaki as Mao, a deep but wholly suaze voice given to a little cat. Misato Fukuen (Miyafuji Yoshika in Strike Witches) has to act deadpan as Yin but her voice remains very memorable and stirring. Masaru Ikeda is the perfect gruff voice for former cop turned syndicate member Huang, bringing back thoughts of the kind of acting you expect in detective dramas.

Nana Mizuki (Morinas - Simoun, Fate - Nanoha) is there as Misaki and is great, but her character needed more screentime. Tomoko Kawakami (Misuzu - Air, Athena - Aria, Sayuri - Kanon, Utena) and Kazuhiko Inoue (Kakashi - Naruto, Nyanko-san - Natsume Yuujinchou, Dusty A - Legend of Galactic Heroes) both play very cool characters (Amber and November 11, respectively) with all of the necessary cool required to make those characters stand out, especially in scenes with them together. There was one voice that really bothered me, though, which was the voice fo the main character, Hei, played by Hidenobu Kiuchi (Tenma - Monster) which just felt forced to me. When he was pretending to be a nice guy, his voice seemed overly idiotic and when he was doing his serious voice, he didn’t sound dark enough. I think the role would have been better if it was closer to something like Jun Fukuyama’s voice as Lelouche in Code Geass, but maybe less theatrical.

Visuals

Animation production on Darker Than Black is done by Studio Bones (Eureka Seven, FullMetal Alchemist, Soul Eater, Ouran High School Host Club, RahXephon, Xam’d) who happen to be one of my favorite studios (all of the aforementioned shows being favorites of mine). Bones always has a very clean, high-budget production with emphasis on style and cool fight scenes. Darker than Black is certainly no exception (if not the rule) though there were one or two places where I saw some cheap corner-cutting.

Most of the staff on Bones shows seem to be employed by Bones directly since their libraries tend to consist of nothing but Bones shows as well as most Bones shows. This is true for animation director and character designer Takahiro Komori as well as art director Takashi Aoi for the most part. Most likely, this is how Bones keeps such a consistent feel across most of their shows.

All of Darker Than Black takes place in metropolitan Tokyo of the near future. As such, 95% of the scenery is buildings, houses, parks, alleyways, etc. There is pretty much an even split of night and day shown in the city which overall is probably a fairly accurate depiction of Tokyo - there are fucking buildings everywhere. I can’t make any complaints about the backgrounds, since they look as nice as they ought to, but there’s nothing terribly unique about them. They aren’t especially detailed and no particular place stands out in my mind. Other than Hei’s apartment, most of what I think about this show’s locations is just ‘well, there were buildings.’ I happen to be a big fan of urban settings, and I did like DtB’s Tokyo, but I’ve seen much more interesting and alive cities in other anime. You can consider me biased in this regard, I guess.

The character designs I felt were awesome and perfectly cultivate the show’s ‘cool’ atmosphere as well as it’s notable detective-drama characteristics. Hei exudes badassery with his combat suit, cloak, and cool mask. The villains range from badass to suave and the women range from sexy to cute (and the cute ones are usually broken, prior to or during the show.) Poeple of all kind of personalities are present in the show and look their parts without clashing with the show’s style. Probably the most notable aspect of the designs are the eyes which have a very thick, dark outline that makes everyone just look a little bit insane. I’d say the eyes more than anything else in the show attribute to it’s dark tone.

Being as this is Bones, the animation as a whole was superb, especially during action scenes. The guys at Bones have a great sense of how the body moves and always replicate it smoothly. There were some cool little techniques used here and there, like a perspective-cam in places or some scratchy outline effects here and there. However, as awesome as the animation is most of the time, it’s not totally consistent. The arc of episodes 11-12 (which I hated all around) had some pretty downplayed animation and there are some parts that would loop footage or show a couple of images a bunch of times. These moments only stand out because the rest of the show looks so great, so it’s hard to decide if they really impact the overall impression.

Tensai Okamura

Darker Than Black is pretty much entirely the child of Tensai Okamura, director of the Stink Bomb segment of the classic movie Memories, as well as director, scriptwriter, and storyboarder for fellow Bones anime Wolf’s Rain. Okamura is not only the original creator of Darker Than Black, but directed it, wrote it, and did scripts and storyboards on several episodes. As such, I see the story as a whole as something Okamura really put all of his effort into and wanted to make as great as possible.

As a director, he does an excellent job. He ties all of the show’s episodic plots into each-other beautifully, paces most of the series perfectly, balances the information and action present in every episode perfectly, and uses plenty of fun directing techniques to exemplify certain scenes. That said, there were a couple of arcs where the pace and plot kind of hiccuped. Most notably the aforementioned 11-12 arc. That arc just fucking sucked, period. Everything about it completely sucked. It was boring, heavy-handed, went around in circles, introduced some elements without explaining them very well, and all-around could have been done much, much better. I feel like if this arc hadn’t sucked so bad the whole show would have flowed near perfectly.

Plot/Connectivity

Darker Than Black has it’s own alternate-reality setting with plenty of details which, if you’re interested, you can read about on Wikipdeia. DtB makes a point to reveal this information slowly and carefully, and more through actions than words. There are no moments of tiresome info-dumping - all of the exposition is perfectly integrated into the action so that there is never a dull moment (with the exception of 11-12.) This is one of the biggest evidences of the show’s careful construction.

Moreso still, though, is how inter-connected the parts of the show are. Dialog and scenes from early episodes gain a deeper meaning when you’ve seen later episodes, and many of the ways characters react and interact are better understood or explained later. Even small things are tossed in all over the place that you may miss the first time. A great example from the first 2 episodes is the cat character, Mao. In these episodes, he can bee seen all over the place in the backgrounds and at one point even drops in on the action in a seeming soincidence. It isn’t until the end of episode 2 that we find out he is a major characer, and all the previous cat-sitings are tied together. Darker Than Black all around promots multiple viewings from it’s recurring events to it’s easy accessibility. It’s pretty easy to go back and watch your favorite arcs as much as you want.

Aside from being extremely well constructed, the overall plot in DtB is pretty good, but I’m not sure it’s something to write home about. The show’s formula is 2-episode arcs up until the climactic final 3-episode arc. Some of the arcs focus on a story that is only somewhat related to the whole while serving to introduce important concepts to the show’s groundwork. Some of the arcs, especially in the later episodes, are focused on the overall plot progression, and finally there are arcs designed to explore the backgrounds of major characters.

For the same reasons that this show is well done, things are accomplished very slowly and only about as much really happens as you’d expect from a 13-episode anime (which some believe it should have been.) It could be said that DtB sacrifices depth of plot in the name of cinematography, and it’s hard to decide how to take that. On the one hand, the great construction of the series is what makes it so fun and interesting to watch, but leaves the plot less than memorable. I wouldn’t even consider this a flaw usually, but the show is so focused on it’s plot that it’s weakness permeates the show.

Characters

Darker Than Black’s greatest weakness is probably it’s characters. The show only does enough to make the viewer care a bit about the characters and not enough to really attach you to them. All of the cahracters are monumentally cool, many quite eccentric, and all a lot of fun, but don’t have a terribly memorable presence.

The main character, Hei, shows a multi-faceted personality and we learn some of his backstory, all of which is nice, but he doesn’t have any real grippng scenes or crowning moments of awesome. Each of the major characters gets a backstory and small introspective treatment, but I couldn’t see myself feeling sad if one of them died or getting excited for their sakes. They were simply ‘fun’.

The most notable characters are pretty much the most cool and/or cute ones. November 11 really stole the show with his badass moments and boatloads of charisma. Cute girls like Amber and Yin stake out their fandoms through cute looks and fun personalities. My favorite was actually the least developed major character, Mao, because he was an awesome cat with a deep-ass voice. Take that to mean what you want.

Homage

One thing I definitely loved about this show is it’s arcs that pay homage to classic pulp story types. The whole show is classic-style pulp, which is part of what makes it so great, and all of it could be called throwback to pulp stories (which really, all pulp is) but a few arcs really took the cake. Huang’s backstory was my favorite for being a perfect detective story deal and having some of the most well-done flashbacks I’ve seen in anime. There was also the excellent yakuza arc which involved the innocent guy whose in with the wrong crowd and the cute girl he falls in love with and tries to protect. There were gang-run corporations getting trampled by supernatural beings, demons of the city night streets, prostitutes on the run, and no shortage of ‘break the cutie’ moments. If you’re a big fan of pulp stories, you’ll find a lot to love there.

Overall - 8/10

Darker Than Black is extremely well-structured, fun, cool as hell, and more than likely will get better every time you watch it. It’s only lightly marred by some poor episodes and animation ticks that are largely overpowered by the sheer awesomeness of everything surrounding. Weak characters and a plot that’s not as good as the way it’s told keep my emotions at bay and prevent the show from a real favorite status for me, but it’s more than woth watching and rewatching for the pulp fun set to great music. read more

Casshern Sins is not for everyone. The show pretty much moves at one pace, and that pace is ’slow’. There is a lot of silence, introspection, and philosophical dialog. Ordinarily, this would make one assume the show is pretentious (especially since it has a lot of similarities to Texhnolyze), but it really isn’t. Casshern has a very simple plot, very simple dialog, and is easy to understand, so people looking for a mind-blower won’t find it here. The plot and messages of Casshern Sins are much more along the lines of Kino’s Journey or Mushi-shi. However, just like action fans will be turned off by the slow pace, fans of more quiet, contemplative anime might be turned off by the fact that there is at least one fight scene per episode and they can at times be lengthy. So the niche here is kind of small, requiring that you like a good variety of styles. I happen to fall into that niche.

Like most good shows, Casshern is amazing in a number of areas and wouldn’t be the same without any of them. The soundtrack, voice acting, animation, directing, fights, dialog, art - everything aligns just right to create a show that is just about perfect for what it is. I’ll be getting into detail on that now.

Sound

Casshern Sins has a very powerful and gripping soundtrack composed by Kaoru Wada (Princess Tutu, Tekkaman Blade, To Heart). The songs are all symphonic, ranging from minimalist and pretty to towering and sinister. The loud songs are very intensely dramatic and dark to the point that some (like the first track Sins) sound outright evil. (Interestingly, that song sounds like the symphonic version of an Opeth song.) The calmer songs are usually very airy and often acoustic-guitar driven. They definitely evoke images of Casshern’s world where you’ve heard them in the background. While either type is great, I prefer the calm songs if only because the more dramatic ones would go better with the show.

There is something very mysterious but also very charming about these calmer songs. They bring a sense of wonder mixed with familiarity. It’s a sense like seeing something totally new, but so enthralling that it feels like home. The ultimate song that captures this feeling is ‘Memory Past’ which is the song that usually played whenever Casshern met someone new and learned their story. The closest real musical comparison I have for this OST is the music in Phendrana Drifts in Metroid Prime which has always been some of my favorite composition. In the context of the series, all of the songs work superbly well to add ten extra layers of tone onto the already tone-tacular series. The music is notable straight from episode 1, which I guess it’d have to be to make me go and find the OST.

In addition to the OST, there has been a Best Theme Collection from this series. The show has one opening theme (Aoi Hana by color bottle) and 3 endings (Reason by KANA, Aoi Kage by Otoya Kichiemon, and Hikari to Kage by Kuno Shinji), the second of which is only used for one episode. The best theme collection has the op and main eds in TV size, several instrumental versions of Aoi Kage, two original tracks by Wada Kaoru, two important vocal insert songs from te series (Sky and A Path by Nami Miyahara who voices Lyuze), and finally, both the original Tatakae! Casshan! theme and a new, heavy version of the song by Otoya Kichiemon.

I personally didn’t care much for the 2 main eds, but I found myself completely unable to skip the op for even one episode. It is easily one of my favorite opening songs in a while. Aoi Kage and the modern Tatakae! Casshan! are both awesome because they manage to play heavy metal acoustics. Anything that can do that is automatically awesome. The old-school Tatakae! Casshan! is the ultimate great touch for lovers of old-school tatsunoko songs. However, great as that all is, Sky and A Path were the real reasons I was interested in this release. These songs made episode 8 of the show amazing and reappear at many great moments later in the show. Both are extemely pretty and wonderful, and Nami Miyahara’s English is excellent (evidently she studied English in Australia).

It’s worth making the statement that Casshern Sins has some of the coolest sound effects ever. The effects during fights are visceral, intense, and completely full of impact. Care was taken to make the sound effects just right and give every hit that needed extra edge. I’m thinking that they made a lot of the effects in the studio, seeing as there were very organic sounds of like pots breaking or the creak of metal. It’s pretty rare I think these days for so much craft to go into sound effects in anime, so it’s pretty notable when it does.

As far as voice acting goes, this show amassed a royal fuckton of talent. Being as there were so many minor characters, a lot of voices were required, and Madhouse didn’t skip out on giving every single character a standout voice. For starters, Casshern himself is voiced by Tohru Furuya (certainly most notable as freaking Amuro Ray, as well as Tuxedo Mask, Pegasus Seiya, and Yamcha) which is a very interesting performance. The voice of Casshern is certainly unique, sounding strong but never stern, and in pain but never really weak. The voice adds a lot of mystery to the character, sounding like the robot he is, who doens’t quite understand emotion even though he seems to feel it. The best part though is his wails in agony which are used frequently when Casshern’s body self-repairs. That dude’s wails are frightening.

Nami Miyahara plays Lyuze with the perfect mixture of resolve, confusion, rage, and love. Like Casshern, hers is a very distinct voice. Yuko Minaguchi (Videl - Dragonball, Yawara, Akiko - Kanon) does a completely superb job as Ringo. She should be cast as every single little kid in anime. I’ve never heard a kid voice that managed to sound young and yet in no way annoying. Best kid voice ever. ‘Cho‘ reprises his role as every old man in anime, lol. Akiko Yajime (Diva - Blood+, Shin-chan, Relena Peacecraft, Kuu - Haibane - damn that’s range) brings her mysterious voice to Luna which tricks you with it’s very regal sound until you start to see another side… well that’s a spoiler. Kenji Utsumi (Shenlong - DBZ, Zodd - Berserk, Lt. Armstrong - FMA) is Braiking Boss who he played in the old version of the show as well, bringing a nostalgia factor.

Toshiyuki Morikawa (Who is in everything. His list is totally nuts.) is awesome as Dio. He plays the perfect rival character. His voice has a darkness to it, but not like an evil bad-dude, more like a man driven by dark purposes but full of resolve, which Dio is. Mami Koyama (Lunch - Dragonball - yes, most of the cast worked on Dragonball, Balalaika - Black Lagoon) brings the thunder as Leda who is convincingly evil and conceited, but also has an inner emotional side. Some of my favorite minor character performances include Mami Koyama’s second roll as Lizbell in episode 7 (which is interestng because Koyama is Tohru Furuya’s ex-wife, which when you think about it makes certain scenes very awkward), Tomoko Akiya whose performance as Sophita is borderline creepy and very fun, and Taeka Kawata who plays Nico, the little girl whose brain has been fried.

Visuals


Casshern Sins is animated by Madhouse. The dudes who brought you (alphabetically) Black Lagoon, Boogiepop Phantom, Death Note, Dennou Coil, Gunslinger Girl, Nana, everything Satoshi Kon, Texhnolyze, Trigun, and X, just to name a few. If you’ve seen none of those, I’ll just say it - they have incredibly high production quality and have been around forever. To give you an idea of how high their budget is, the first half of Casshern Sins aired simultaneously with three other Madhouse shows, the second half with one, all of which had unfaltering high-quality animation throughout. There is pretty much no other studio who can do something like that. So it really comes as no surprise when I say that Casshern Sins has incredibly beautiful animation.

The most instantly and consistently notable thing about Casshern’s art is the luscious backgrounds. The background art is almost incomparably beautiful - almost. Probably only one show matches up to it, it being Mushi-shi, which is why it’s no surprise that Yoshihiko Umakoshi was the art director and character designer for both series (a dual job he’s done for Zipang, Street Fighter Alpha, and Boys Over Flowers, none of which I’ve seen. He also did it for Air Master which doesn’t matter because that show is fugly, probably thanks to budget.) I’ve actually watched an interview with this guy on one of the Mushi-shi DVDs and while he is very boring to listen to, I do remember him saying that he was a perfectionist and would always stress that there be boatloads of detail in the backgrounds, which I guess he’s still up to.

Casshern’s art is almost always barren, lifeless, and cold. The world of Casshern faces ruin (basically, apocalypse) and so there is little life to be found. The landscape is jagged and covered in large mountains, hills, valleys, craters, and deserts of sand and snow. Remnants of civilization can be found, some cold cities have buildings that still tower while others have fallen apart and buildings have become decrepit husks. Some places have become so dry and ruined that the ground has actually crystallized and cracks under every step. Occasionally, though, there are places of lush, brimming life to be found. Secret gardens surviving in caves or wellsprings and oceans. There is definitely a sense of mystery to the world that you can find anything if you look around enough. And, as a character in one episode teaches Casshern, every place in this world is beautiful. As a big fan of dystopic art, I found myself completely enraptured in these wastelands as much as I was mystified by the lush outcropping of life in unexpected places.

Umakoshi’s character designs are drop-dead gorgeous. It takes skills to make a masked superhero with a big red C on his chest and ornamental horns on his helmet fit into a dark, somber setting. But, somehow, he’s done it. Casshern looks like a badass but also looks like he fits into the setting. He is supposed to be a beautiful person, and it’s certainly visible in his design. All of the characters are very tall and lanky, almost like CLAMP designs, but have an added sharpness to them and are actually consistent. I can easily call them some of the best character designs I’ve seen in anime.

What’s most impressive, though, is that a definitive 70s style remains ingrained into the designs. Every one has absurdly big hair and their facial features are very old-school. However, these elements have been perfectly crafted so that the designs still look modern and not ridiculous as they often do when new shows try to use old style. The robots especially represent the old school with their very basic designs, but they have a bloodthirstiness about their designs that makes it unsurprising when they are killing machines. Overall, I’d say my favorite designs from the series were definitely Lyuze and Luna.

Naturally, since this is Madhouse, there are also plenty of exemplary animation techniques. Unfortunately, ANN doesn’t have any animators listed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Hiroyuki Imaishi’s (director of Gurren Lagann and animator of all those wacky scenes in shows like FLCL, Mahoromatic, and even FullMetal Alchemist) name ended up on that list since his trademark over-the-top and hyperactive style is used in many of the fights. The show features a lot of ‘sketchy lines‘ and badass shadow effects. The fight scenes often contain mind-blowing animation tricks that will make people who notice these things cream a huge load.

Directing

I think that series director and storyboarder Shigeyasu Yamauchi probably had the biggest impact on the way this series turned out. As you can see on his ANN page, he directed a bunch of the Dragon Ball/Z and Saint Seiya movies and had involvement with their main series (and going by their ANN pages, he would have had experience with nearly all of this show’s seiyuu during those times). The experience with those series can be seen heavily in the fight scenes. When Casshern and Dio fight, nearly every strike rockets someone into a wall which explodes just as the other fighter shoots at them like a bullet for the next blow. There are several scenes where the ground around Dio craters under the sheer fluctuation of his power. Yamauchi definitely wanted to bring the scope and intensity of a DBZ fight to this series, which is something I personally have always wanted to see done in a serious anime. It is made a thousand times better by the huge budget of the show which allows the fights to look amazing, cool, and fluid.

Yamauchi definitely has a great sense of dramatic cinematography. Every shot is carefully composed to look as cool as possible, with characters nearly always in some kind of dramatic pose and the light hitting them just right. This is taken to an almost hilarious extent in some of Casshern’s fights against robot armies because he will literally attack them by kind of jumping at them, striking an epic pose, and somehow causing them to explode. Lighting is impeccable and the use of color is very important. Most of the show has a sort of blue and grey hue to it, but when other colors appear they are striking and noticeable against the backdrop of blue. Overall, I think Yamauchi just does a splendid job and probably had a lot of fun with it.

Plot/Theme

The overall plot in Casshern Sins is so simple that I could detail the whole thing thoroughly in a small paragraph (but I won’t for spoilers’ sake.) The show’s focus is more on the themes that drive the series and the characters representing or interacting with those themes. That said, while the plot is simple, it is very well-presented and interesting, making it a great driving force for the action and themes.

All of the show’s themes relate directly to the conflict between life and death. The dark, barren world of Casshern is on it’s way to ruin and death is ever-present. Every person is directly grappling with death and the end of the world, and those who don’t die just from the ruin usually die at the hands of other robots, especially if they try to attack Casshern. There are few characters who survive their own episode, much less the whole show.

What Casshern, who is immortal, learns in his travels through the dying world is how death effects different people (usually robots). Most of the world desperately clings to life. The strong robots fight and kill each other constantly to steal each other’s parts and try to prolong their lives. The weak search for any means of survival, clinging to little hopes or loosing to despair. Some merely accept the ruin as pleasantly as they can, but more often than not they will turn from this mindset at the slightest sight of hope - namely, the supposed immortality that one will gain if they devour Casshern.

However, not everyone is desperately clinging to life. Casshern encounters some robots and humans who aspire to something without the fear of death. Some teach him that the world is beautiful even in ruin, that there is hope in the world, or that they can live forever in the things that they leave behind. Casshern’s conflict becomes whether or not eternal life is justified or death necessary. He is torn between the sadness of death and the liveliness brought out by it’s presence.

The themes of each episode are interesting and deep, sometimes moving, and more so as they culminate into the over-arching theme. Casshern, as a stark contrast to the world around him that he desperately tries to understand, makes for the perfect receptacle to these themes.

Characters

Casshern Sins features surprisingly complex main characters in light of it’s simplistic plot and usually episodic nature. Casshern himself starts off as basically a blank slate with no memories and only knowledge as far as he learns from others. As he experiences the world, he has to weigh his experiences against each other to figure out his own beliefs. His character is kept interesting by the conflicting ideas he develops in relation to those experiences.

Lyuze’s conflict is between her desire to kill Casshern because of him ruining the world, effectively killing her sister, and her growing care for him and changing perception of the world. Casshern’s first companion, Friender, has some pretty great development considering that he is a robot dog who cannot speak. Friender’s emotions are represented through actions, and in those actions we see how he slowly transitions from hating Casshern to trusting him and eventually both protecting him and keeping him under control.

Without spoiling, the villains, Leda and Dio, have their own interesting development. Dio has dreamed of nothing but killing Casshern, while Leda is using dio to try and make the world her own. Each of them is thoroughly explored and developed. Luna, Oji, and Braiking Boss are also great characters with a lot of development, but those are spoilers.

There are a whole plethora of minor characters, most of whom appear just for one episode. Every one of these characters feels alive - they don’t merely expunge their beliefs onto Casshern, but show him the way that they live (or, of course, die) through their actions. Characters come in all variety of personality, shape, and size. (inside joke) Casshern could be said to have the best pseudo-harem since Ginko from Musi-shi.

Episodes

Casshern Sins is episodic much in the same sense as Cowboy Bebop. The chains of episodic parts are broken up by plot-related episodes, the major characters get their own introspective episodes, and the last group of episodes form the conclusion. There were a couple of less-than-amazing episodes (I remember finding 15 and 16 a bit boring and 21 is kind of ill-done but the next episode justifies it) but otherwise, every episode was great.

All of the plot episodes were superb, especially whenever Casshern and Dio fought, which was always quite epic. Besides the wonderful climactic episodes, I pretty much had 4 favorites. Episode 7, where a woman in a high tower teaches Casshern about the beauty of this ruined world - Episode 8, where a woman wants to spread hope through her song - Episode 12, where a man tries to paint his city his color so that the world will remember him - and Episode 18, and excellent cuckoo nest episode into Lyuze’s psyche.

Overall

As I stated in the beginning, Casshern Sins is definitely not for everyone. If you like all kinds of anime regardless of genre and are easily interested in something without it having to be fast-paced, Casshern may be for you. If you’ve always wished that the philosophical plots of pretentious anime would mix with the good fun and awesome fights of shounen action, Casshern may be for you. However, if slowness leaves you bored or action leaves you disinterested, you’ll want to stay away. For me, the show was everything I could have wanted and filled a niche that I’ve long waited for an anime to fill. read more

Simoun is one of those anime that is accurately described as ‘amazing’ and anyone who disagrees has ‘no taste’. It’s ‘brilliant’, if you will, and that may be why it doesn’t have enough fans. It stands a little too far on the threshold of goodness where it can’t really become popular. Kind of like Legend of the Galactic Heroes or Honey and Clover, or something, where it has a following of dedicated fans and is truly top-tier stuff but somehow just never reaches the heights that it should in popularity.

Unlike those 2 I mentioned, though, Simoun has the power of Yuri and therefor was able to get licensed by Media Blasters who did the absolute perfect shining example of how a niche release should be. Sub only, 26 eps on 5 DVDs, plenty of bonus features and absolutely gorgeous cover art. It’s in every way what fans of the series would want, so I can’t commend MB highly enough for such a great release.

Sound

Because Simoun is a bit difficult to be concise in recommending, I’m going to stab at some of the elements of awesome at random. The soundtrack by Toshihiko Sahashi (The Big O, Gunslinger Girl, FullMetal Panic) is a nonstop audial orgasm. It’s VERY RPG sounding and I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Uematsu’s name roll through the credits. This soundtrack is kind of what would happen if you took all the best songs from Final Fantasy 7 and 9. There are a lot of highly funky bass-driven songs, some latin-sounding guitar-picking songs, some tango, and no shortage of huge, bombastic symphony anthems. I’m listening to the OST right now and it’s so exciting that it makes me hit the keys more dramatically and is actually making this post sound way more epic to me than it should.

Aside from the songs just being epic, though, they are so well-placed it’s uncanny. Director Junji Nishimura (Ranma 1/2, True Tears, Windy Tales)’s commentary implies that he had a major part in deciding how the music should sound and what kind of genres should be included where. There’s one particular thematic song that simply MAKES scenes. Almost all the major scenes in the show feature this song, and every time it adds a whole new layer of awesome to the scene. I remember telling my friend while we were watching that ‘any scene with this song is automatically going to kick ass.’ What I found interesting was a that a lot of huge or bombastic scenes would feature lighter music and some quaint scenes would have more dramatic music, but in every instance it flat-out works. It’s majorly evident that a lot of care went into track placement.

Even the sound effects are noteworthy. At all times that characters are on a ship, you can hear a faint engine noise in the background and wind when they are outdoors. The director even brags about a scene where a character walks through a room where the other characters are all asleep and they recorded all of the actors just breathing which you can only really hear with the volume up.

So while we’re on the subject of sound, we obviously have to talk about the seiyuu, of which there are no shortage of big names. Rimone is one of my favorite Mamiko Noto (Ana - Ichimaro, Shimako - Marimite) roles, though she gets next to no lines (which she herself mentions in one of the specials). Newcomer Michi Niino does a pretty great job as main character Aeru delivering some great emotion. Rieko Takahashi (motherfucking Diana and Kihel from Turn A) might have outright stolen the show as the other lead, Neviril, where her mature tone and mystifying dramatic emotion give the character a true life of her own. Some other big names with great performances include Nana Mizuki (Fate Testarossa, Rin - Rideback, Rue - Princess Tutu), Ami Koshimizu (Kallen, Anemone, Horo - Spicy Wolf), Eri Kitamura (Ami - Toradora, Saya - Blood+), Yukana (C.C., Tessa Testarossa) and my favorite, Rika Morinaga whose other roles do not interest me. The only less-than-great voice is Michiru Aizawa’s grating performance as Floe, which happens to be her only anime role ever.

The most interesting aspect of Simoun’s voice acting, though, is that the voice actors who play the main cast also play everyone else in the show. In the Simoun universe, everyone is born female and they have to choose their gender at 17. The series creators used this as an excuse to have all the old men in the series played by girls. And I must say it’s fucking weird. There were some instances where it was impossible to take the men seriously because they sounded so feminine, though it ended up working in the favor of resident bishounen Anubituf. I can’t say whether the males-by-females decision was a good or bad one, but it’s certainly quite interesting to say the least. It’s also funny when Mamiko Noto plays any minor character because you can so tell it’s her regardless.

Visuals

Simoun’s animation is a very funny thing. Like, Sunrise funny. That kind of funny where it can be utterly beautiful one minute and then a few shots will be completely fucked up. Or where most of the backgrounds are hand-drawn and Miyazaki looking while others are more normal and some stuff is CG. This has a lot to do with the director getting what he wants and the Art Director being eccentric as all hell (you MUST look at Shinichiro Kobayashi’s list of work. Angel’s Egg, Ashita no Joe 2, Berserk, Detroit Metal City, Figure 17, Castle of Cagliostro, Melody of Oblivion, REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA, Space Adventure Cobra, all of which use the techniques and all of which are artistically brilliant.)

As mentioned, a lot of Simoun’s backgrounds are hand-drawn and drop-dead gorgeous. They have a very washed and mystic look that is rare to see in anime (except those listed above) and add a lot to the show’s fantasy atmosphere. Meanwhile, the ships and planes, etc. are CG, but don’t look ugly at all against the backdrop. The CG is very minimalist with a focus on smoothness and blending in with the rest of the image, which is exactly how it ought to be done. Everything in the series has the aura of mystic beauty that enthralls the viewer into it’s rich world.

Director Nishimura talks in his commentary about the extensive use of heavily detailed stills that they call ‘harmonies.’ This animation technique was made famous and popularized by God of Directing Osamu Dezaki who would use them in all of his shows, especially for a dramatic moment at the end of an episode. Nishimura said it was a risky move that got mixed reviews, but he thought it was a very important technique to transition scenes and that Art Director Kobayashi was strongly supportive of using them, being as he is an old-school guy who loves cells (evidently he would hand-produce some cells for the show just because he wanted to.) Personally, I’m a huge fan of harmonies when they appear in any series, and they are done extremely well in simoun to exemplify the emotion of a great many scenes.

Also notable is the show’s very interesting use of outlines. For the most part, the characters are animated just as you would expect from any modern anime series. However, there are a number of action scenes and otherwise manly (for, you know, women) moments where the outlines get thick as a motherfucker. The most memorable of these is the first appearance of the main character Aer at the end of episode 1 who is wearing a brown wrap-around cape and goggles that make her look like she just flew out of a fucking 70s mecha anime. Needless to say, these moments were epic levels of win.

Which, of course, brings me to the character designs. Asako Nishida is both character designer and animation director (which she also did for Touka Gettan and Vampire Knight as well as directing animation in shows like Outlaw Star and Infinite Ryvius) and going by her commentary with Nishimura, she was a huge part of the show and majorly attached to it. She fangirls over several characters and says how she had drawn her favorites at different point in their life just for fun and other such things. The designs are consistently nice and wholly sexy on all sides. Most of the girls have a voluptuousness to them that isn’t seen as much these days (won’t say moe) and many the same mystifying beauty carried by all of the show’s visuals.

My favorite part of the designs was the hair, namely Aer and Mamiina’s hair (funny since my brother hated all the hair). The breasts were also very nice - it’s a goddamn accomplishment to get me to like a woman having large breasts and I loved it on every girl in this show (since most were moderate to large.) That said, my favorite design was still the loli, Rimone, who also had awesome hair and a bewildered cuteness to her. Her smiles were just all too satisfying. Neviril was a very interesting design because she pulled off the sort of ‘untouchable goddess’ look better than any character I’ve seen. I hated her hair, and ordinarily I’d hate her type with the ‘noble’ look to her, but unlike most noble goddess types, Neviril honestly fit the part of someone that commanded respect and got it. Even when she shows vulnerability, she still seems utterly mighty. It’s also worth noting that Nishida had a lot of fun with the males, making them every bit as bishounen and voluptuous as the females.

As for the consistency of these designs, the director says in the commentary how he was impressed with the consistency from the animators, though I think he’s giving a bit too much credit (which Nishida points out.) There weren’t any terrible inconsistencies, but breast size seemed to be all over the place and girls sometimes went from flat-faced to Jew-nose without warning. Aer’s hair also seemed to get… taller in certain spots. There were also several aforementioned ‘Sunrise moments’ where a majorly noticeable animation blunder made my friend and I lol. And don’t get me started on running. Studio Deen cannot fucking animate running. However, these issues are pretty minor and do nothing to diminish the fact that this is an incredibly pretty anime.

I also feel the absolute need to bring up the eyecatches (you know, those images that show up before and after the commercial break.) This show has some of the best eyecatches of all time, and sort of provide some extra fanservice for the show. Every picture is lovingly created and outright cumtacularly sexy.

World

Simoun is essentially a small story taking place in an enormous fantasy world which handles itself much better than Xam’d. The world is fantastical, vast, and very RPG-like, especially it’s steampunk setting. However, this story takes place in one country of this world, and not even a whole lot is told to the viewer about this country. The show’s real focus is it’s characters, so we learn much less about the world itself. In the commentary, the director notes how he was especially careful not to bring up certain parts of the Simoun world because they wouldn’t matter to the story and would just end up being a loose end that never gets tied.

To give you some scope on how massive the world Nishimura envisions is, there is one character in the show who says that she is an immigrant to this country while explaining the origin of a song she sings. In the commentary, Nishimura says that she is actually an immigrant from another planet. According to him, Simoun has interplanetary relations going on, but because this story was so small and “26 episodes” he didn’t want to needlessly introduce such a huge section of the world (something Xam’d could have handled better.)

However, while we may not get the full perspective of Simoun’s world, it is a show that immediately makes the viewer feel is vast and rish and completely seperated from our own. In the Simoun world, everyone is born female, ships are powered by a combination of science and divinity, and there is a lot of religion going on. The central nation in the show is a theocracy that lets religion govern all of their actions. The flight mechanisms aren’t feasible by our planet’s means and there are a number of magical elements such as….. well, space-time manipulation. Nishimura notes that it was a major issue to decide how realistic the show should be, and so he included a scene in the first episode where an insanely massive explosion takes out several hundred enemy ships as a way of saying ‘just be open minded and ready for anything.’

Personally, I found this world thoroughly engaging and would love nothing more than to see other series set in this universe. Not necessarily featuring the same characters, just more of this world. While it may not be totally unique, I think there is more than enough to this world that it could be explored from other perspectives and places… maybe I’ll write a fanfiction or something, lol. Going by the underwhelming popularity of the show, I can’t see a sequel happening. Maybe a novel or two? Someone?

Characters

Simoun’s strongest asset and biggest focus is definitely it’s characters. Every character has very complex emotional depth and all of them see major evolution over the series’ course. The show’s major themes are growing up, making decisions and finding out exactly what it is you want out of life, so you’ll see all of the characters tackle these issues in their own ways.

Neviril and Aer, the main characters, are kind of opposites with their similarity (Neviril: “There is exactly one thing that makes us the same.”) being what they want out of life. Aer begins the show totally sure of what she wants, struggling to keep that sureness, while Neviril struggles to become sure of anything, and seeing these emotions juxtaposed in one another is what starts to pull them along in finding themselves.

Not all of the emotions flying around are immediately obvious and you’ll have to search and pay attention to see what’s happening in the characters’ minds. Some characters like Paraietta and Mamiina have to make major changes within themselves from stubbornly clinging to self-destructive beliefs and relying or not relying on others to the point of self-detriment. Some of interpersonal drama is less about emotions and more about past incidents, such as the sisters Kaim and Alty who have been driven apart despite past closeness thanks to a major incident in their past.

All of the characters have incredible amounts of drama going on right from the start, and it doesn’t really let up until everything starts to sort out towards the end with the events that transpire. So one can expect a lot of tension from beginning to end. This is what might alienate the audience in many cases. We watched the show with a seond friend who wanted badly to get into it but the heavy drama and all-female cast made it too hard for him to relate to and he couldn’t really connect with anyone. I’d say the show is probably easier to recommend to girls or at least people who can enjoy a very tense, serious drama. And this is non-bullshit drama - the show is extremely mature and you don’t get some petty melodrama bullshit. Some of the characters can be emo at times, but this is not an emo anime - the show itself is as critical of such bullshit as anyone.

Overall, I’d say there was not one major character who I didn’t like and though they all make mistakes, they all do a pretty great job of redeeming themselves. The show lets no character go unnoticed. Even Yun, who was originally supposed to die early on but was kept in the show due to popularity got her own interesting plot written in to make me appreciate her. If you want characters who are totally human, but totally respectable, you won’t find anything much better than this.

Pacing

Simoun definitely has a major strength in pacing, but this does not apply to the first 3 episodes. People who are able to recognize a good anime when they see it will likely be impressed right from the get-go, but for everyone else, this is an admittedly hard show to get into. The first episodes throw in a lot of characters and a lot of technical terms that are only explained enough so that you might know what the hell is going on but beyond that, it’s not so easy to get an emotional connection. The show starts off with the death of a character which has a major impact on the other characters, and it’s trying to handle this impact while simultaneously introducing you to the world, which doesn’t leave too much time for showing off.

However, the mere fact that they actually accomplished introducing the world and characters to such an extent within just 3 episodes is astonishing. It’s nothing like Marimite where you are left confused, it all makes good enough sense, and by episode 4 it’s accomplished enough to deliver it’s first truly notable emotional scene which for me was enough to completely win me over the first time I saw it and continue to amaze upon rewatches. If that episode doesn’t nab you, the show will surely win you over by episode 8 at which point it has pretty much completed all of the setup and dives straight into the meaty, emotional, character-driven content that thrives through the rest of the show. The transition from exposition to development is perfect, and from that point on there is pretty much a non-stop train of amazing episodes.

DVD Features

It’s very worth noting that the Media Blasters DVD releases feature a number of special features. The first DVD has a mock game show where all of the voice actors have to answer questions that may or may not relate to the show which is a ton of fun and surprisingly long. Each DVD has a special ‘interview’ with two of the cast members. These seem to be cut from their original length but are still hilarious and quite a blast, especially for seiyuu fans. I do admit, it was kind of embarrassing at times when the seiyuu proved themselves somewhat dense. Much more interesting though is the commentary with the director and character designer which I’ve brought up a few times. Three of the DVDs feature these commentaries of about 10-15 minute apiece wherein the pair look at a bunch of scenes from teh show and talk about background info and other thigns regarding the show. They are not only highly insightful, but pretty hilarious at times with all of Nishida’s jokes and fangirling over her own bishounen characters.

Overall

Simoun is one of those anime that the creators put all of their heart and soul into creating and as such manages to really resonate with an audience that can appreciate it. Everything in the creators’ power was done to tell the story they wanted to tell, create characters they could love and an experience they could be proud of. As a director, there’s nothing I love more than to see a story created with such passion as it makes me also feel passionate in return. I feel as though my love and dedication to the series and characters is deserved and I have a lot of respect for anything which can attach me emotionally to the point that I don’t want to let go and don’t want the series to end.

Simoun is an amazing experience more than deserving of it’s dedicated fanbase and undoubtedly deserving of much more. I have no doubt that this is one o the greatest anime in existence. read more

NOTE: Scores are based on a HENTAI scale, not to be judged in terms of regular anime.

Regardless of the show’s positives and negatives, Alignment You! You! is most likely to be enjoyed by a very particular audience and not by any other particular audience. The show is absolutely cram-packed with insanity from people being violently murdered to chicks with dicks to tentacle rape. If you are a fan of more conventional sex, it won’t be up your alley. If you like your hentai to be totally out there, this is one for you. It is also singled out by the fact that it is very lighthearted, whereas most hentai with this kind of content is extremely dark. This only makes the audience smaller.

The biggest weakness of AYY is it’s animation. It’s pretty much average for hentai, being mostly looped thrusts in various positions. I’ve seen much worse, but I’ve also seen much better. The animation is even worse in the second episode where parts without any sex still sucked ass in terms of that. The fact that the show has a unique style unfortunately only serves to make the poor animation more notable. Nevertheless, seasoned hentai watchers probably wouldn’t be expecting any better.

Direction-wise, there is plenty of position changing, which is nice. The show has the advantage of being about 70% sex, which means they fit more into the scenes (especially the second episode.) This brings me to the show’s most notable feature - it’s thick style. AYY is very over the top as far as facial expressions and extremity of rape go. It’s probably the only hentai I’ve ever seen that actually uses action lines in the background creating increased intensity. Characters’ eyes change shape into crazy spirals, and evil smiles are spread wide as the rape reaches new heights. It’s what I would best describe as ‘exciting.’

AYY has some very recognizable character designs, which is always a plus for hentai. The poltergeist girl is both a badass and incredibly moe, which is in itself quite hilarious. There’s a big-breasted character, a small-breasted character, and a couple in the middle so everyone gets what they want, and all of them are pretty attractive. I wouldn’t put them on a ‘best design’ list or anything, but they get the job done well enough. I really love the eye designs which lend themselves well to the eye-transformations. The poltergeist girl’s eyes at time look royally insane, and the main character girl’s are always full of energy, beaming into stars or hearts.

As far as the sex scenes go, AYY covers a pretty decent spectrum. There’s straight sex, futa sex, a combination of the two, and a tentacle rape scene. These cover just about every breast size combination, too. Most of the sex is pretty basic foreplay-into-intercourse, and thankfully, not too much or too little time is spent on either - usually it’s about just right, in my opinion, though I guess that varies. There is certainly a lot of sex, so at least something int there is bound to appeal to someone. The insanity of it all and the constant changing of camera angles keep any sex scene from being like the other, which is a definite plus.

As I mentioned before, though, regardless of quality, ones enjoyment of AYY is going to be mostly based on their opinion of the content. I personally thought it was a lot of fun and quite hilarious. The characters were awesome, especially since we get to see multiple sides of them. I also found the relationship between the main girl and the poltergeist to be very cute. Plus I just love to see insane things without taking them seriously. This is certainly an anime I’d love to see uncensored, but I can’t see anything this insane being licensed. read more

Going into Ocean Waves, it's not likely easy to grasp. It's a Ghibli film, but it doesn't involve Miyazaki at all. It's a 100% realistic slice-of-life film that might even be hard to understand. The story pretty much follows two good friends and the girl who enters their lives and turns them upside-down. It's one of the rare movies that has drama and romance, but puts them in a light where they aren't dramatic or romantic, but just part of the flow of life. In the end, the movie is about (as it explains itself) how when a person's world is very small, the things that happen in it can seem like they mean everything when they are really silly or even as much as flippant. It's easy to go into the film expecting a straightforward plot, especially when there seems to be an obvious love triangle forming, but what we get instead is something much more realistic and less obvious. The relationships are never, ever cut and dry and while the events which transpire shape people's actions and emotions, there are no huge pivotal points where a relationship takes on a certain definition. Like in real life, things can be left open-ended, and threads can be untied and retied as people gain a greater understanding of their feelings. It's also one of the few movies where characters really, truly develop all-around from every experience. As I've said, the movie can be hard to get into, but if you accept it for what it is and truly appreciate the message, it can be a wonderfully enriching experience.

ART
It's studio Ghibli. That should be all I have to say.

SOUND
The musical pieces were wonderful and the voice acting was great. It's not a tracklist I immediately think to download, but then I don't get that much into this style of music.

CHARACTER
The characters are definitely one of the most important elements of Ocean Waves. The main character guy is just great. He's a pretty normal guy, but he's sensible and he's the kind of person who steps forth and gets things done. His best friend is just the kind of guy I'd love to have as a best friend. The leading female is incredibly human, and she fits her role to a T. I could go into detail, but really, you should just watch the movie and see for yourself.

ENJOYMENT
I was taken aback by how much I enjoyed this movie. I admit to have questioned it a bit when halfway through it hadn't really pulled out a plot, but I settled in and realized that I was missing the point. The ending was brilliant and tied everything together in a way that it was unforgettable and a nearly moving experience. Strangely, this movie didn't fill me with any emotion - that wasn't it's goal. It just entertained and satisfied and that was all I could want.

OVERALL
A 10 out of 10, definitely what I'd consider a timeless classic. It's certainly not for everyone, but those who can appreciate it will undoubtedly keep it in their heart. read more

Story: 10

Giving the perfect score for story to a 10-minute movie is not easy, however Comedy brings to life the Irish folk tale of the black knight in the most enchanting and mesmerizing way imaginable. It is said that the black knight, a dark, lanky, and brooding man, will take any request in exchange for ancient books. When an English army is descending on a little girl's village, she flees into the black forest to the ruins of an old castle with a book handed down through generations of her family and upon finding the home of the black knight, offers him the book in exchange for the salvation of her home. I won't spoil how things transpire, but it is a whimsically dark tale. The charm of Comedy lies in it's storytelling, taking the perspective of the little girl as she looks back on the event years later. Despite the encompassing dark atmosphere and theme of the story, it always has a sense of lightheartedness and fun, which is reflected in the show's title.

Visuals: 10/10

Insert stream of obligatory superlatives here. For the entire 10 minutes that I watched this show my breathing had come to a complete halt. Comedy has a style that nothing else I've seen as matched, mixing intense darkness and a faded, oil-painting look that draws the viewer into an unforgettable experience. Studio 4c lives up to it's reputation with incredibly fluid animation as well.

Audio: 9/10

Most of the sound in Comedy comes from the little girl's narration, and she is very well-acted, having a voice that fits the tone of the story. Quiet and somber are good words to describe the show as a whole, and for the atmosphere being created, it works perfectly.

Characters: 9/10

There are only two characters in Comedy, and they create a beautiful contrast. The adorable white-haired little girl is innocent and wide-eyed, playing around and being utterly cute while the black swordsman is silent and stone-faced, usually sitting still and molding into his environment. Watching the two interact is cute and fun, and gives the show it's whimsical edge. The black swordsman also probably takes my spot of my favorite dark hero.

Overall: 9.5/10

Comedy is among the most memorable and amazing anime to grace my eyes, and is more enthralling in ten minutes than any full production could ever be. read more

Story: 6/10

Escaflowne is an enchanting, fun, and refreshing mixture of shoujo and shounen elements - for about 13 episodes. Perhaps the writer and director got bored, or didn't plan things out correctly from the start, but whatever the reason, halfway through, Escaflowne all-around plummets and never rises again. Our journey through the series begins with Hitomi, an average high-school track star living her average shoujo-anime life when suddenly, as she is potentially seconds away from receiving her first kiss before seeing her lover off as he leaves the country, a boy wearing medieval armor and wielding a long sword appears. Along with him comes a land dragon which which he proceeds to do awesome battle before he and Hitomi are mysteriously teleported back to his world - one where the Earth can be seen in the sky. By the second episode, we see the boy, who's name we learn is Van, become king of the land of Fanelia minutes before it is attacked and razed to the ground. And so, King Van's quest for revenge begins with Hitomi in tow. Soon we meet the dazzling knight-in-shining armor Allen Schizard, who pilots his ship with his band of merry men and for 8 or so episodes we are delighted to partake in non-stop action, adventure, thrill, and some of the most well-animated fight scenes I've ever seen. There's also Dilandau, my personal all-time favorite villain. Right around episode 10, a war breaks out between the allies of Van and Allen and the evil empire with all the epic drama you might expect from a Lord of the Rings movie.

Things have gotten good. Which is why it becomes a problem when piles of crap begin to materialize and fling themselves against the fan during the mid teen episodes. It all begins in episode 15, after some very heavy drama and the disappearance of Dilandau, who doesn't return until episode 21 or 22. Pacing immediately becomes awkward, with random, short battles that seem to have been thrown in for the sheer sake of having battles as opposed to not. Episodes 17 and 18 are a sudden, massive dump of plot exposition using the cheapest tricks possible; such as a dream sequences to explain the motivations of the main characters in one episode, followed up by one where the good guys proceed to break into the enemy base, calmly listen to the main bad guy's entire back-story, and them promptly escape from said base.

Personally, I hadn't gotten to bothered by this portion of the show during watching, because the earlier episodes had been so good and I was sure that with the plot now out of the way, things could go back to normal. However, instead, things become very awkward very fast. For the next arc, there is little to no exploration, and the characters all spend more time dilly-dallying than staying focused on the plot. The addition of several new characters, complete with episode-drinking back-story, also serve to muck up the pace. My biggest gripe with this part of the show, though, is with the way all of the characters become annoying jackasses. It would be difficult to describe how this happens without spoiling anything, but Van, Hitomi, and Allen all manage to thoroughly earn my disrespect and none redeem themselves by the end of the series. Other characters continue to be explored, though the only really interesting one dies only 2 episodes after becoming important. Things do start to pick up again when Dilandau returns, but at this point the show has fallen too far to lift itself back up. The last few episodes are very rushed as well, making what would have been an excellent ending feel mediocre and needing.

Visuals: 8/10

Like it's story, Escaflowne's animation takes a major blow about halfway through the show. Beautifully animated and directed mech and sword battles are the most noteworthy quality of the earlier episodes, so when the battles become poorly directed, poorly animated, and infrequent, the show looses most of it's visual draw. Certain episodes wear their budget issues on their sleeves, and sadly, no battle scene past episode 13 lives up to anything before it, even in the final episode. Even so, the show has definitely aged well, and except for a couple misfit episodes, it carries the look of a high-budget production.

Audio: 8/10

If you enjoy the sort of symphonic epics one might find in a Final Fantasy game, you'll probably enjoy Escaflowne's soundtrack. Not being into this kind of music, I wasn't really paying attention to it, but I thought it was nice enough to be deemed noteworthy to fans of the genre. The opening theme is quite catchy.

Characters: 5/10

Like most fantasy stories, Escaflowne has a fairly large cast full of unmemorable characters who are given generic personalities for the sake of plot progression. Ignoring them, though, there are 3 characters who I'd consider important enough to be called "the main characters." First, Van, the King of Fanel who quests for vengeance in the name of his kingdom. Second, Allen Schezard, the chivalrous knight with a mysterious past. Finally, Hitomi, a girl from Earth who's really freakishly good at predicting the future. Though Hitomi and Allen are pretty much your average shoujo lead and love interest, they are fun to watch, and Allen is the kind of badass you can't help but love. Van is interesting for being one of the most concentrated and kind-hearted male leads around, making him easily likable. My favorite, though, is the psycho villain Dilandau - a completely bloodthirsty madman with a childlike, insecure mind who constantly bitch-slaps his compatriots. Unfortunately, as mentioned in the story portion, Dilandau disappears for a wile, and in the period of his absence everyone else becomes so annoying that upon his triumphant return (alongside awesome and seriously under-developed sidekick Jajuba) I found myself rooting for him to hurry up and kill all the other bastards. Even Dilandau has a dramatic character alteration near the end that is totally out-of-place and quite stupid. Despite that, I quite enjoyed it, because it happened to cater to a personal preference of mine, but I consider it a guilty pleasure. Oh, and the main bad guy is boring and unthreatening, literally sitting in one place throughout the entire series.

Overall: 5.5/10

Escaflowne was a major disappointment; the first half was so incredible that I had been excited about each proceeding episode,more than ready to sing high praise for it, only to find myself wishing it had been different. read more

Story: 10

Wow. To say I was completely blown away by Baccano! might be a huge understatement. Gathering it's charm from the wild antics of cramming 3 novels into 13 episodes, Baccano! is one of the most intense, unique, and downright fun shows to ever come into existence. Comparing the plot to any other anime would be impossible; between cannibalistic immortals, New York gang violence of the late 20s, a clash of forces on the Transcontinental Railroad, a dubiously fortunate pair of thieves, and much more, one's mind can only be boggled by how all of it is fitted together naturally. Linearity is non-existant in either the timeline or presentation of the show itself, which opts instead for throwing out pieces of the story and letting the viewer put everything together. In addition, there is a massive cast, and all of the characters are equally important. Despite the number, though, all of them have refreshingly unique personalities - both from each other and from convention.

Using this combination of crazy characters and wacky storytelling, Baccano! never looses it's energy over the course of it's 13 episodes. Every moment succeeds in shocking, wowing, and bringing a smile to the face of the audience, be it through an exchange of witty dialogue, an electrifying battle, or a mysterious, dramatic occurrence. More importantly, though, is that despite all the madness going on, everything comes together seamlessly by the end of the series. Backing up all that energy is the uber-badassery that oozes out of every second of every episode. Baccano! is incredibly violent and unpredictable, crating scenarios of totally unforeseeable outcomes and holding no life sacred. Blatant usage of plot devices such as deus ex machina help give the feeling that the show really does whatever it wants.

By accomplishing a sort of completion in which every moment has to be taken into account to appreciate the whole while making every moment thoroughly enjoyable, the series could be considered structurally perfect.

Visuals: 9

Combining western pulp styles with seinen-anime designs paints a thick layer of style all over Bacano!. 30s New York and the massive train The Flying Pussyfoot are beautiful and intriguing, besides being carefully crafted (especially the train which is an environment that anime often does wrong or blandly). Heavy emphasis on color also livens up and deepens the overall atmosphere. Thanks to some great directorial decisions and intense cinematography, the fight scenes are always a joy to behold and well-animated. Because most of the cast is immortal, there are quite a few scenes with heavy gore and dismemberment, often proceeded by the re-attachment of a limb and culmination of blood as it re-enters the body. These scenes feature the coolest effects; the first time a character gets his finger severed and the blood and limb float through the air and re-attach themselves, I remember saying aloud, "that's freaking awesome." Talking scenes get less treatment, naturally, but they are rather infrequent.

Character designs in Baccano! are all wonderful, featuring a wide range of age groups that are all given equal treatment to look as cool as possible. Admittedly, there is a disturbing number of blondes which confused me at first, but once past the initial who's-who the unique designs are greatly appreciated.

Audio: 9.5

"Guns and Roses," the thickly stylish jazz opening is probably the most well-known feature of Baccano!. Hearing it, you know immediately that something great and fun is about to begin. During battle, the energy-filled themes are immersive and add another layer to the fun. Like the visuals, care is taken to make everything ooze with the stye of fast-paced and exciting pulp.

Characters: 10

Rather than selecting a main character, Baccano! features a self-proclaimed ensemble cast full of equally important and developed characters. Admittedly, there are certain characters who deserved more screen time (especially eye-patch-and-glasses-wearing girl Nice holystone) however, there is still a thoroughly impressive effort to connect the viewer with every character. One of the most difficult things is just picking a favorite. Isaac and Maria, the energetic, idiotic thieves always bring a smile along with their hilarious antics and lovable dumb luck. Jacuzzi Splat, who begins a hopeless crybaby but develops into a brave hero as well as his partner, the voluptuous Nice Holystone bring in the rebellious do-gooder spirit. The young mafia boss, Firo, has the most main-character personality and gentlemanly attitude. His relationship with a certain homunculus is one of the most involving plots. And those are just the nice guys. Szilard, the show's most prominent villain, is utterly hate-able and really evokes a deep rage, to the point that you're just begging for him to get his ass kicked. Next we have a cult full of masochists who's psycho leader is obsessed with killing people 'who think they are safe'. His is one of the most delightfully demented personalities I've had the pleasure of enjoying. However, my personal favorite had to be the man with the powers of god; the inhuman Rail Tracer. Even now, I haven't covered all of the major characters, so you can get an idea of how crazy it is. Characterization is definitely the strong point of Baccano!.

Overall: 9.75

Baccano! is as close to perfection as I have ever seen in an anime. Stylistically thorough, interesting and entertaining for every last minute, and with my personal choice of the greatest characters ever, it doesn't do a single thing wrong and presses all of the right buttons. No other series maintains such a balance of fun, thrills, and nonstop badassery like Baccano! read more